9.15.2015Acceptable Documents for Policies and Procedures Many scopes of review in the standards require policies and procedures. How does NCQA define “policies and procedures” and what are acceptable documents?

Policies and procedures are official documents that describe business rules and a course of actions, and the methods for carrying out the actions. Simply put, policies and procedures specify how an organization performs the requirement under review—the organization’s “documented process.”Usually, NCQA expects the organization to present only the components of the policies and procedures that demonstrate it meets the requirement. Depending on the element, this may include, but is not limited to, a program description, operating guidelines or process flowchart.